Not So Alone After All
by Lord Mendasuit
Summary: Chance reunites a lonely, brooding shinobi seeking to avenge his teammate's murder through fratricide and a flirtatious, carefree owner of a bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere that just keeps reminding Sasuke of what he lost...


"Ryo for your thoughts, hun?"

The shinobi's head snapped upwards, throat ready to let loose a simple, snappy comeback.

His eyes trailed forward.

For a moment, everything stopped. Sasuke felt as if an eternity passed by as he stared forward. He blinked, however, and time resumed once again. They were wrong. They were closer to gray than to blue. They were not filled with that same, unbridled love for life that had once been in the eyes that Sasuke remembered.

There was mischief. There was simple amusement.

But it wasn't the same. These were the eyes of a grown woman. Of someone whose innocence had been removed long ago.

The blue eyes that he remembered were still clearly innocent. It couldn't be.

The hair was wrong, as well. Whilst the style was similar, almost the exact same, the color was different. Hers had been a shining, golden shade of blond, so radiant that it put the sun itself to shame.

This woman's hair lacked the same shine that plagued Sasuke's memories.

The Uchiha's eyes, however, did not fail to analyze the sight that greeted his eyes. The sight that greeted his eyes was that of a bombshell, no doubt. She had a light blue yukata draped loosely over her form, done so in a fashion that left her shoulders bare and teased at revealing the luscious breasts that it barely hid.

There was a generous slit that turned the yukata into an almost indecent garment. All in all, it was something that Sasuke would have expected from a bar of the sleazy kind rather than this tavern, which boasted a friendly atmosphere.

"None of your business." He stated, once his original comeback finally punched through. She was not her. Not even close. But it didn't help the Uchiha's heartache. Shaking his head, he grabbed the drink, a simple glass of cheap beer, and downed it carelessly. He didn't care for its taste, nor did he care for the thought of the alcohol messing up with his system.

A few of the other patrons of the bar briefly gave a strange look towards the black haired Shinobi who proudly displayed the mark of his status on his forehead. Sasuke supposed that there would've been a more hostile reaction to his treatment of the woman if people had the balls to challenge a Shinobi around these parts.

A small time town like this… he could wipe it out on his own in a couple hours at best.

And they knew it.

The woman smirked, leaning into the counter. "True." She said, and Sasuke was treated to the hypnotic movements of her chest as she closed the distance between them. "But I just made it my business, hun. Whatever's bothering you, I'm sure Nee-san can make it go away!" She said, her tone flirtatious and quite openly sensual. Sasuke had no doubts about what she intended by that.

Normally, the mere suggestion of it sickened him. The mere idea of him requiring to drown his sorrows in carnal pleasure was something that he didn't even wish to entertain. He had never spared a thought on the females that surrounded him like crows before, so why would he do so now?

This time, it was special.

Uchiha Sasuke was neither an asexual prick nor was he a repressed homosexual. He was just a tad prudish. He had gone his entire sixteen years of life without ever touching anyone in any manner but as one intended for violence, with the rare exception being times of absolute necessity.

He had no intention of breaking his record, either. But this wench on a bar was reminding him of what he'd lost.

Even her voice was damn similar. It was just the qualities to it that were different. Sasuke cursed himself. Now he was seeing her in a random wench that would never even reach her knees. She'd never be anything like the golden ball of sunshine that he'd lost just three short years ago.

"I'm not interested." He nearly growled his words, ignoring the choked sounds of people who reacted to his declining the offer. The wench was beautiful and was probably well above what the peasants were used to. But to Sasuke, she simply couldn't compare.

She merely offered him a mischievous, amused smile. "Aren't you?" She asked, closing in.

_She straddled him, holding him flat against the ground. Her forearm was pressed against his chest, causing his breathing to become more complicated by the second. She released the pressure, but he'd been frozen to that spot._

_The orange jacket's zipper had suffered greatly and was now threatening to reveal even more than the generous cleavage that shouldn't even have been there. Sasuke felt the fabric of her stupidly short shorts brush against his own when she moved. She was on all fours, over him._

_Her smile was mischievous and fairly amused. Her golden hair cascaded from behind her, framing both her shoulders and face and reflecting the light from the sun in such a manner that looking anywhere but direct at her face would've been painful on the Uchiha's eyes. Sasuke couldn't help but have his eyes drawn to her eyes._

_Those sapphires that were filled with simple, unbridled joy and the smile that he cursed every night._

_She brought her right hand forward and traced the contour of his neck, slowly making her way up to his chin._

Sasuke shook his head and almost kicked away, hearing the giggle of the woman as he stared, wide eyed, at the woman who would be so ridiculously forward. "What… what do you think you're doing!?"

"Enticing you, hun." The woman said, a wide, carefree smile on her face. "I'm bored, and you're amusing."

Sasuke scowled. "I'll not be made into a joke by a bar wench." He said, his voice having a dangerous edge to it. He had no intention of holding back the imposing presence that had made him famous across the land.

"Of course not, hun." The woman said, completely unaffected by the killing intent that Sasuke oozed. The Uchiha was even further disturbed by how the woman, rather shamelessly, flaunted her attributes as she moved on to another customer. Sasuke watched, almost hypnotized, as her hips swayed back and forth, as she shook her shapely bottom and as her sizable breasts bounced as she exaggerated her movements.

She was serving a young boy, couldn't be a day over fifteen. The flush he had on his face was most decidedly not a product of alcohol, and given the small group that formed behind him, he was probably one of the no doubt several people who frequented the bar mostly because of its keep. Sasuke could see why.

He'd described her as beautiful before but as she moved around, he had to admit, she was strikingly beautiful. She had the body of a goddess and her flirtatious, friendly and carefree attitude seemed to make her more than endearing to the crowd that gathered in her small bar in the middle of nowhere.

She went from table to table, delivering both drinks and small items of food that could be easily prepared within minutes. It seemed she doubled as barkeep and waitress, though she did seem to have someone behind the scenes who performed the cooking.

Most were disappointed, however, when she returned to him after she was finished taking the orders of and serving the newcomers. "Have you thought it over again?" She asked, propping her elbows on the counter and holding her head up with one of her hands, using the other one to frame her rather bountiful breasts.

"The answer's still no." He said, his eyes narrowed and his voice flat.

Instead of being deterred, the woman only giggled, which again, caused her chest to move in that hypnotic, mesmerizing fashion that almost caused Sasuke to regret his words. Almost. "Aw, hun, you're trying to be no fun and failing at it. It's cute." She said, standing once again and moving around to deliver a plate with a few flirty words towards one of the young boys who'd arrived earlier.

Sasuke saw how the men that stared for more than two seconds were reduced to putty by her words and how with simple and calculated motions she enticed them even further. Sasuke had no doubts now about why mostly everyone in this bar was male.

And why the few females that were there were also mesmerized by the figure of the blonde woman. This simply further cemented the separation in Sasuke's mind.

She had always been flirtatious and aware of the effect her body had on men. She had always capitalized on it, using her charm to distract people. But she'd never purposefully abused her ability to manipulate men for her own gain in this fashion. For a joke, a prank or something like that?

Yeah. That was fair game. This woman was using her body to the fullest extent.

Sasuke grunted when he noticed that he had a new glass in his hand, replacing the one that he'd emptied not too long ago.

"You seem like you've got a chip on your shoulder the size of this building." The woman said in a tone that Sasuke could've almost mistakenly assumed was kindly. "Talking about your problems always helps, I reckon." She added, as she grabbed a rather sizably large glass from the counter behind her and, with a pristine white cloth, began to go through the motions of drying it. Of course, she went about it in the most suggestive way possible.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, gesturing with this at the headband that adorned his forehead.

She giggled again, which made Sasuke seriously consider throwing caution to the wind. Even her freaking voice was reminding him of her too much at this point. He reigned his temperament in, however, and watched as she deposited the glass she'd been cleaning back on the counter and started with another one. "I doubt that your personal problems are a state secret." She added.

"Anyone who knows who I am would use them against me." Sasuke offered, conversationally.

"Ara, are you famous, by chance?" She asked, raising an eyebrow with clear amusement painted in her features.

Sasuke scoffed. "Famous?" He asked. "You could say that, I guess. I'm in every nation's bingo book." He said.

"Empty boasts to charm a maiden's heart?" The woman asked, shaking her head. "You needn't make the effort, hun. I'm not that kind of girl." She said, offering him a wide smile.

"You wanted a reason why I can't tell you jack and now you're calling bull." Sasuke said, letting amusement seep into his voice.

She giggled. "Well, hun, nobody knows who you are here." She said. "Shinobi coming through these lands are a rarity as is. Are you here on a mission? I don't think there are many reasons why anyone would come around these here parts…" She said, tapping her chin.

Sasuke wanted to scoff and tell her that if she wanted more visitors to the town, all she'd have to do is send some of her boy-toys to spread the word of her incomparable beauty and men would come flocking. He knew that at least one person would be here within instants, just to check her out, and people would at least follow him if he found her tasteful.

However, he found himself shaking his head.

"Ah, that's a relief." She said, smiling. "So you're not here on Shinobi business? I thought you guys couldn't leave the village unless…"

"I have travelling rights." Sasuke spoke, looking directly at the drink he still held with his right hand. He had let the words come out a tad more harshly than he intended it to, and he'd intentionally cut her before she threw the accusation. "I'm no missing nin." He said, looking at her in the eye.

The amusement in her eyes was still pretty clear. "I was going to suggest a vacation, hun." She said, smirking at him and leaning in. "You don't have the face of a missing nin."

Sasuke's narrowed eyes bore into the blonde's own cerulean eyes. "What would you know? You're a barmaid in the middle of nowhere…" Sasuke said.

"A little town in the middle of nowhere that has food, a halfway decent bar if I do say so myself" There was a wild chorus of 'Aye!' to accompany her statement, as the men swung their mugs up and confirmed her statement, "and of course, no Shinobi presence whatsoever."

Sasuke blinked. Of course. A small town that had food, lodgings and did not ask many questions, save for this lone bar wench. He smacked himself, of course Missing Nin would frequent the place if there was no Shinobi presence to sniff them out. Heck, for all he knew, there could even be missing nin in the bar right at that moment.

He'd have to activate the Sharingan and watch for the minute twitches a trained Shinobi had for reactions, to watch them walk and see if they walked like a Shinobi or to see if they thought like one. But that would require giving far more fucks than he was willing to at this point.

Sasuke sighed.

The woman covered her mouth with one of her sleeves (it was odd to see that they were the only part of her attire that was properly sized. Her breasts were threatening to spill out of their containment at all moments) and giggled lightly. "You look as if you'd swallowed something bitter, hun. Need a drink to lower it? This one's in the house."

Sasuke accepted without a second thought. The drinks were meant to get his lips loose, no doubt, so he'd spill an important secret that she could later sell to either another nation or whoever was willing to pay for it. Of course he was far from reaching the limit of his tolerance for alcohol. He was no Tsunade, at all, but he was still far from suffering from the effects of inebriation.

The cheap, brand-less rice wine that he'd been given was surprisingly potent, if a bit… less than delicious. Still, he supposed it wasn't becoming to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Yeah, like I said, you're nothing like a missing nin." She said, nodding to herself. "The last one declined rather rudely." She off-handedly commented.

It was weird that she'd so freely admit that she was openly selling to criminals. Then again, there was no law in the fire country against it, as Missing Nin were technically the responsibility of whatever Hidden Village they'd crawled out off. Sasuke grunted in what he hoped was an approximation of a questioning tone.

"A handsome fellow, if a tad too grim." She said, tapping her chin and leaning back. "His friend was way more lively."

Sasuke's thoughts were brought to a crashing halt. It couldn't be them. It couldn't be… It couldn't be those bastards. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be the bastard who'd ruined his life not once but twice. He blinked and took a deep breath. He was hyperventilating. Or rather, he would if he didn't calm down. He felt his blood pressure rise and anger beginning to cloud his features. "Do you know their names?"

The woman smirked at him. "Hun, would I have any clients of that persuasion if I freely gave away their identities?" She questioned, raising an amused eyebrow at him. "One of them looked a lot like yo-"

Her words died on her throat, however, when he grabbed her by the almost fully open garment she wore and dragged her so their faces almost touched. "Tell! Me! Where! They! Went!" He growled, no, snarled at her, his eyes blazing with the Sharingan. "Tell me where they went!" he yelled again, releasing her and letting his killing intent flood into the bar.

She was… not impressed, actually. "Hun, if you're trying to intimidate me, you're gonna have to work harder than that." She said, adjusting her yukata as she did, smoothing her hair.

Sasuke realized that the patrons were looking at him with odd smiles in their faces, as if they were in on a joke he wasn't. It irritated him, though he was FAR more irritated by the idiotic wench who didn't tell him where the two criminals that he'd been hunting for three years non stop had gone. He had half a mind to subject her to mental torture the likes of which there'd never been.

He would find them and he'd rip them limb for limb. "I won't kill you, wench, but I will make you wish I had, if you don't tell me where they went, RIGHT. NOW!" He yelled, taking a simple, but strong, stomp back and unsheathing the tanto slung around his back.

"Like I said, hun, you're going to have to work harder." She said, waving his not inconsiderable presence away like it was nothing. This only managed to further infuriate Sasuke. Who did this wench think she was, to keep him away from his revenge like this!? Who did she think she was dealing with!? "Now sit down and finish your drink. You're unsettling the other patrons." Her tone hadn't wavered even once. It'd remained perfectly civil and level, and in fact, had almost retained its lighthearted tone.

"Wench, if you don't give me the information I seek right now, your patrons will be the least of your worries." Sasuke informed. "You don't understand. I need to find those men." He said, shaking his head.

She smiled, a smile that was somewhere between coy and sinister. Her eyes seemed to stare at him as if he was nothing but a petulant child throwing a tantrum and Sasuke wanted to tear them out of her head for it. "Nah. You want to find those men. You don't need to." She said, returning to cleaning another glass.

The deafening silence that Sasuke hadn't noticed had formed after his outburst was broken when the other patrons returned to their business, completely undisturbed. He guessed that this must happen more than often in a town frequented by those running from the law. Sasuke shook his head as he sat on his stool again. "No… I need to. My revenge is all I have. One of those men… he took everything from me."

She sighed dramatically. "Ah, revenge… the most worthless of causes." She said, shaking her head and offering him a rueful smile.

Sasuke bristled. "What do you know!?" He demanded harshly. "You've never suffered what I've gone through! You wouldn't understand the pain that… that monster inflicted on me!" He said.

She closed her eyes and looked pensive for a moment. At that point, Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. She looked so…

_She looked so funny trying to figure out a complicated concept. Her brows furred as she tried, in vain, to think up a solution to the problem he'd presented her with. It was something that he'd made a sort of hobby by this point, if only to see her wreak her head trying to solve it. Puzzles that he'd solve in a few second, meaning, puzzles where the answer was not entirely obvious but not something overly complicated?_

_She'd take forever to solve them. She seemed to have a problem making the simple leap of logic required to see the typical answer most would think of._

_Her leaps covered much longer ground, though they took a little more time to prepare. She, however, had presented him with an answer he'd never thought about. She didn't choose Option A or Option B, both of which had Pros and Cons to their names._

_She went ahead and picked C, the best of both._

She smiled at him. "Lost in memories?" She asked.

Sasuke shook his head.

"It looked like you were." She said, smiling. "Regardless… Like you said, I don't know what you've gone through and I possibly never experienced it and would rather never experience it." She said without missing a beat. "However… Let's assume for the sake of argument that you hate this guy because he killed someone close to you."

Sasuke's reaction was, in hindsight, far too telling.

"So I hit the nail on the head." She summarized. "Anyway, he killed someone close to you. So now you'll go and kill him, right?"

"It'll only be justice." Sasuke muttered darkly, his eyes narrowed and glaring at the saucer holding his latest serving of sake, the prior one spilled all over the counter previously. He absent mindedly noted the skilled hand that went quickly about cleaning his disaster.

She sighed and shook her head. "It doesn't matter how justified you think you are." She said, which caused Sasuke to stiffen again. "You know the old expression… An eye for an eye?" She asked.

Sasuke snorted. Everyone knew that old adage.

"An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, hun." She explained, looking at his own eyes pointedly. "Today, you find and kill the man that killed someone close to you." She began, propping her elbows on the counter. "Tomorrow, someone who loved that person will hate you. So they will find you. They will kill you. And then somebody close to you will hate that person, and kill them in turn. And again, and again, and again."

Sasuke blinked. That was a surprisingly deep thought for someone who he'd just thought would disapprove of him simply for his revenge involving the killing of another human being. Civilians were easily squicked out by the thought of death, he reckoned, while it was just the path that Shinobi walked. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"It's the cycle of hatred, hun." She explained, smiling sadly at him. "And it will continue until people get sick and tired of hate or there is only one man standing." She explained, and only then did he notice that she had dropped her prior carefree nature and had adopted a much more serious tone. "You need to stop and think. What will you do when you've completed your revenge?" she asked, out of the blue.

Sasuke blinked. He realized… he'd never thought that far. All he'd thought about was getting his revenge. He shook his head. Get his revenge and then what? What to do after that?

"Will you settle down and live peacefully? Or will you just seek another target?" She asked. "When you've let yourself be consumed by the desire for revenge… and you complete it… what's the point of living anymore? You have no purpose. You already achieved it. You're just a waste of space." She said, her tone growing harsher with every word. "Stop thinking about the people you hate."

"You talk as if from experience." Sasuke finally managed to blunder out, trying to stop her onslaught. He didn't want to think about the implications of her words.

"I do." She said, finally. "I'm an orphan, hun. I never had anyone to look out for me. All I had was the scorn of a town that didn't want me and didn't want to remember I existed." She explained, looking at one of the windows, her gaze resting on the far horizon. "I guess I'm lying." She said, shaking her head. "I used to think that the world was against me, back then. That I'd been brought here to suffer. And I wanted to lash out for it. I wanted to return all of its hate in kind."

Sasuke widened his eyes.

"I once thought that if I ever could judge them, I would do so severely. To avenge each of their offenses sevenfold, to repay them in kind for every slight, to react, lash out and return the pain they dealt to me." She said, her tone taking a more than noticeably sad tone as she spoke. Sasuke could've sworn he heard a small break in her voice. "But then… A wise old man saw all of it hidden in my shadow."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that moment. "A wise old man?"

"The wisest there was." She said, nodding to him. "A man with a heart too big for his own good." She added, her voice gaining a fond, nostalgic quality as she did. She absent mindedly rubbed at her eyes. "I still miss him…" She said, and Sasuke could've sworn he saw a single tear run down her face before she brightened up again. "Regardless, what he told me was very simple."

Sasuke looked at her. "What could he possibly have told you to make you drop your hatred like that?"

"If I killed them… I would be killing myself. Because I'd condemn myself to the cycle of revenge. I'd simply be hunted down by the loved ones of those I killed. And when I killed them, their loved ones would come after me, again, and again, and again."

The final puzzle piece came clear and fit perfectly. "Na-Na-Naru-"

She placed a finger to his lips, shushing him. "Hush now, my name is Menma, hun." She said, her voice unnecessarily sultry. She then patted his hand and Sasuke clearly felt her slip something in his pocket.

Later, when he left that bar, still in mild shock and numb from surprise, he read the directions necessary to arrive at a somewhat secluded spot not too far from the village proper. It was surrounded by forests, as were most villages in the Fire Country, placed next to a river.

If he followed the river for a few meters, he'd easily find a decently sized cottage.

And within that cottage, he found the goddess he'd been seeking for so long.

And within the goddess he'd sought for so long… he found peace.

* * *

As he laid on the bed, completely spent, he noticed that he could scarcely move a muscle. He was exhausted beyond words, but also oddly content. He'd… found peace, ultimately. He had never thought much about what to do then. He would've been content to just lie there forever.

"You're up. Finally." Said a rather irritated voice. "You can't even move, can you?" Sasuke immediately recognized the form of the woman he'd become intimately aware of. He knew every contour of it and though covered by her underwear and robe, he could still remember it vividly. She shook her head and finally laughed. "Serves you right for trying to keep up with me. Remember this well. Nobody outpaces Uzumaki Naruto!" She yelled, a wide grin on her face.

Her wonderful face, with the whiskered cheeks, with those blue eyes that made sapphires look dull, that gorgeous golden hair that made the sun pale by comparison…

She was like a beauty taken straight from his dreams.

Sasuke wanted to laugh, but he was too tired to. Instead, he decided to pop the question that was just bugging him by this point. "Why… why hide yourself from the world?" He asked.

She snorted. "I'm not hiding from the world. I'm training to get ready to whoop your brother's ass when he comes for me again." She said, cracking her neck, and folding her arms over her plentiful chest. "My training's almost complete… I've completed the Rasengan, finally. Took me three whole months, too!" She said, clearly annoyed by said fact.

Sasuke's eyes almost bulged out. Kakashi had told him that the Rasengan was incomplete and that its complete form would most likely far outstrip the Raikiri in sheer power. However, something more important came into his head. "So… you're finally coming back?"

Naruto smirked. "I promised Baa-chan I'd take that damn seat, didn't I? I can't do it if everyone thinks I'm dead." She said, folding her arms over her chest.

Sasuke sighed. "Okay, I'm sort of… three years late but… Finally, I've got a perfect record again." He said.

There was a thick tick mark forming from the swollen veins on Naruto's forehead. "Oh, you did not just say that."

"Hell yes I did." Sasuke replied, a challenging grin on his face.

* * *

Naruto smiled as she made a familiar handsign. "Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" And a small squad of very specialized clones popped out.

"Aw, why do we get saddled with the paperwork!?" One of the clones complained.

"Because I'm the original and what I say goes." Naruto automatically replied. "Get to work." She added with a glare. She opened her robes, showing the Jounin Flak Jacket that she wore under it. Today was too hot to wear them closed, she decided, as she leaped away via one of her windows. She was far too fast for even the trained ANBU to see if she ran at full speed, but she was hopping at a leisure pace.

Besides, it was a grey day, almost bordering on stormy. No, it would most definitely rain in a couple of hours at most. It gave the day a solemn atmosphere that she kinda enjoyed.

She jumped until she landed on a familiar building which she smiled at. A building where she'd spent two years more than had been necessary, where she'd been mocked and ridiculed and where she'd found him for the first time.

"Ho-Hokage-sama?!" A startled voice yelled out.

"Yo!" She called out, waving lazily at the gaggle of people who'd gathered from that yell. It was to be expected. She did, however, turn immediately back when she heard a very distinct sound. Namely, of several little feet stomping on the ground, rushing their way out of the academy. She spotted a familiar blue and white little blur followed by a familiar red blur behind it.

With a pair of swift movements, she caught them both as they rushed past her. "Hey there, you two." She said, smirking at both of the little Shinobi in training that she'd caught. They both glared at each other. One was a young boy with black hair that somehow managed to both be spiky and straight at once, while the other was a young girl with ridiculously long red hair that reached her waist easily. While one was wearing a blue shirt and a white pair of shorts, the other was wearing a dark green tunic over a black bodysuit. They both turned to glare at the blonde, however. "Now now, is that a way to greet your mother?"

"Kaa-san, he made me trip in front of the class and everyone laughed at me!" The little girl yelled, pointing at the boy and spitting venom with every word.

"It's not my fault you're so clumsy!" The boy yelled back.

The woman giggled lightly. "Apologize to your sister, Itachi." Naruto said, lightly glaring at the boy who quickly cowed.

"O-Okay..." He mumbled. After swallowing as if he was trying to down a ball of broken, pointy glass, he exhaled like a prisoner in the death row. "I'm sorry for tripping you, Mito-chan."

The girl huffed and opened her mouth to retort, but her mother's glare centered on her this time around. "He's sorry, Mito." The woman said, setting them both down. "Anyway… You know what day it is today, don't you?"

Both children nodded. "We're going to visit Otou-sama, right?"

Naruto smiled fondly, then one of her hands went up to her face. Every time she was reminded of him, her hand subconsciously reached for and rubbed the eyepatch over her right eye. "Right." She said, nodding.

And, hand in hand, they walked until they were in a training ground that evoked memories both good and bad, until she stood in front of a memorial stone that had been expanded immensely to accommodate the ever-growing list of people to die heroically in the line of combat.

Her eyes traced several names, her eyes lingering perhaps too long on two in particular. Her mind traced every character and her brain conjured the images of her memories. She'd only met them once, but she remembered that day like it'd been yesterday.

The names written in the stone where 'Namikaze Minato' and 'Uzumaki Kushina', but no matter what, she'd always read them as 'Father' and 'Mother'. It was perhaps of immense respect brought from understanding their sacrifices. She still had lingering regrets about having kicked her father in the crotch to get rid of her resentment.

Then again, the face he'd made had probably made it worth it. Her mother had certainly found it amusing, as well.

Her eyes stopped again on the name of Sarutobi Hiruzen. The old man had gotten a raw deal. Fate had given him a pretty crappy hand and he'd gone and done the best he could with it. As much failures as he'd had, Naruto liked to consider herself amongst the man's achievements. She owed too much to him not to.

She did not dwell on the names of her friends. She knew they wouldn't want her to. And, she realized, every single name in the stone belonged to one of her friends. Belonged to her family. All of them. She was the Hokage, and as such, Konoha was her extended family in its entirety. This filled her, even to this day, with both excitement and dread. She shook her head and her eyes went to search for a name she remembered very well.

"Sasuke…" She muttered, and again, her hand rubbed at the eyepatch in her right eye. She smiled, a sad, nostalgic smile. "Thank you, for everything. See you later, okay?" She asked, looking at the gray sky, before turning around and simply walking away, her children running around her. "Let's go home."

* * *

If you have to wonder... it's simple, really. Jiraiya thought, correctly, that if he announced that Naruto was dead she wouldn't have to deal with the Akatsuki for a while, so he hid Naruto in a town in the middle of nowhere and left her instructions whenever he could drop by so she could actually train. Given that in canon most of the time Jiraiya spent goofing around, I'm willing to take the chance that Naruto came out at just about the same level of strength as canon Naruto did, except since she had loads of time while her Kage Bunshin attended her tavern (Jiraiya was also teaching Naruto how to be a spy on the side with that), she had time to invent the Rasenshuriken because she was so incredibly bored.

Naruto's right eye is a Rinnegan. No, Sasuke didn't unlock the Rinnegan. When he died, he only had time to give her his right eye, at the time an eternal Mangekyou. In her, it became a Rinnegan because she's got Senju DNA because she's an Uzumaki.


End file.
